Content and Thematic Analysis

Question 1

What is content analysis?

Answer 1

It’s used to quantify qualitative data and the researcher analyses written, verbal and visual communication numerically

Question 2

What does content analysis require?

Answer 2

Coding units to categorise analysed material. Doing units can be words, themes, characters or time and space. Once coding units have been established the qualitative material gathered is analysed and then tallied every time an instance occurs

Question 3

What are two strengths of content analysis?

Answer 3

1. It’s easy to perform, inexpensive and is non invasive and it doesn’t require contact with participants
2. Reliability is easy to establish as content analysis can be easily replicated using the same coding units and qualitative materials

Question 4

What are two limitations of content analysis?

Answer 4

1. Content analysis is purely descriptive so does not reveal the underlying reasons for the behaviour
2. It’s limited by the availability of material so observed trends may not reflect reality

Question 5

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 5

It’s a qualitative method which identifies, analyses and reports themes within data with patterns identified through data coding

Question 6

What is the process of thematic analysis?

Answer 6

1. Familiarisation with the data- intensely reading the data
2. Coding- identifying feature of the data
3. Searching for themes- identify patterns of meaning
4. Reviewing themes- checking the potential themes against the data to see if they explain the data and answer the research question
5. Defining and naming themes- involves a detailed analysis of each theme and creating an informative name for each one
6. Writing up- combining the information from the analysis

Question 7

What is the key difference between content analysis and thematic analysis?

Answer 7

Thematic analysis remains qualitative and the write up involves a detailed description of the themes found